Globally, over one-third of women report having experienced some form of physical or sexual violence. Many cases of violence, such as domestic abuse and rape, are underreported, so the true incidence of gender-based violence (GBV) is actually much higher.

To stem violence, it is crucial that countries and program implementers are informed by evidence on what works best. There needs to be a stronger, broader knowledge base about prevention and response that can inform investments, policy and practice.

World Bank Group Senior Director for Gender, Caren Grown (@CarenGrown), and Director for Social Development, Maninder Gill (@ManinderSGill), discuss with Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez (@Ede_WBG), Senior Director for Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience, a new Good Practice Note created to help World Bank staff and partners identify gender-based violence risks – particularly sexual exploitation and abuse, and sexual harassment – in projects with major civil works contracts. This note helps project teams to assess the risks of gender-based violence, address these risks through mitigation and monitoring, and respond to any identified gender-based violence incidents.
This adds to other World Bank resources, including the Violence Against Women And Girls Resource Guide which offers guidance for development projects along with strategies for policies and legislation.

When considering support for refugees and their host communities, gender based violence (GBV) is a great concern that requires special care and attention.

Unfortunately, violence against women and girls is all too common in many countries across the globe. Drivers of GBV include entrenched social norms that perpetuate power imbalances between men and women, and more generally circumscribe women’s agency and voice in communities and in the home. Despite a recent increase in reporting, data suggest that 45 percent of women who have experienced GBV did not seek help or tell anyone, and there are striking regional differences.

Photo: WRI Brasil Cidades Sustentáveis/Flickr
Does separating women on public transport tackle the wider problem of sexual harassment and assault, or does it merely move the problem around? How can governments combat sexual harassment on public transport without segregating transport by gender? Does the employment of women in the sector contribute to designing better solutions to improve women’s personal security in public transport and enhance their mobility? Experts on both sides of the issue debated these and other questions at a recent event on “Women as Transport Users and Transport Services Providers – What Works and What Doesn’t” hosted by the World Bank’s transport team. Data reveals that while a significant share of women all over the world experience sexual harassment on public transport, often in pandemic proportions, the majority of cases goes unreported.

The session was conceived to explore development implications of women-only transport; highlight why laws matter for women in the transport sector; and better prepare World Bank staff to discuss these two topics with their respective clients.

The women-only transport concept regularly catches the media’s attention and has been debated before. Those who favor providing women with the option of gender segregated transport say it provides much-needed safety for women and facilitates their access to income-earning opportunities and various services. Those against segregation say it further reinforces gender inequalities and entrenches sexist attitudes.

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Zero Discrimination Day (March 1) comes this year at an opportune moment.

The global discourse is abuzz with conversations around discrimination and its impacts on those who have experienced it. In fact, in some ways the #MeToo movement is an assertion against a form of discrimination, as are other movements of groups that have historically been oppressed. They are sometimes minorities based on race, but often, as in the case of the movement against sexual harassment and assault, they may well be members of half the population.

So, to mark this day, we talk about a related issue – exclusion, especially social exclusion. We could well debate the conceptual relationship between the ideas of exclusion and discrimination, but this is not the forum for that debate. Here is a paper that specifically addresses discrimination.

This is the moment to remind ourselves who would be most likely to be excluded, stigmatized, and discriminated against. A number of people could be at risk, but we find that social identity is usually a potent driver. Individuals and groups who are disadvantaged on the basis of their identity are at greatest risk of exclusion, but probably also of discrimination. We have talked about at length about this in our 2013 report “Inclusion Matters,” including the processes that underpin exclusion and discrimination.

Watch our video blog and tell us in a comment how we can ensure development projects are truly inclusive.

Transport is not gender-neutral. This was the key message that came out of a high-level gender discussion co-hosted by the World Bank and the World Resources Institute during the recent Transforming Transportation 2018 conference, which was held in Washington DC between January 11-12, 2018. This was the first time in the 15-year history of this annual event that a plenary session looked specifically at the gender dimensions of transport.

Women represent the largest share of public transport users around the world, yet they face many barriers that limit their mobility. The numbers speak for themselves. Some 80% of women are afraid of being harassed in public spaces. In developing countries, safety concerns and limited access to transport reducing the probability of women participating in the labor market by 16.5%, with serious consequences on the economy: the global GDP could grow by an additional $5.8 trillion if the gender gap in male and female labor force participation is decreased by 25% by 2025 (International Labour Organization). Women and men have different mobility needs and patterns, yet transport policies for most countries remain unrelentingly gender-blind.

Female participation in the transport sector—as operators, drivers, engineers, and leaders—remains low. According to Harvard Business Review, “women make up 20% of engineering graduates, but nearly 40% of them either quit or never enter the profession.” As a result, the transport industry remains heavily male-dominated, which only makes it harder for women service users to make themselves heard, and limits incentives for the sector to become more inclusive.

The gender plenary at Transforming Transportation brought together five women and two men on the panel to discuss these issues and highlight practical solutions used in their work to ensure inclusive transport.

Good policy starts with good data, which is why the work of Together for Girls (TfG) begins with nationally representative Violence Against Children Surveys (VACS), led by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as part of the TfG partnership. The VACS generate data on prevalence and incidence of physical, sexual, and emotional violence as well as risk and protective factors, consequences of violence, and access to services. VACS have generated data for almost 10% of the world’s youth population (aged 13–24). VACS data catalyzes and informs national action to prevent and respond to violence. With strong data to guide the way, national governments lead the development and implementation of a comprehensive multi-sector policy and programmatic response to violence against children (VAC).

Community leaders discuss systems of violence prevention in the community of San Juan de Floresta in Loreto, Peru. Photo credit: G Shannon, DB Peru

In the Peruvian Amazon, the Lower Napo River communities that we are working with for the upcoming GBV in the Amazon of Peru (GAP) Project are negotiating a transition to modernity, where increasing access to transport, telecommunication and media has meant that communal life is changing. This has coincided with increasing concerns about gender violence: recent figures from Mazan, a remote township on the Lower Napo River, show that 79% of women between the ages of 18 and 29 report experiencing sexual violence at some point in their life.

Young women, some still girls, await long-haul truck drivers that stop by a gas station in the State of Tocantins, located in the North region of Brazil. Here, impoverished women and girls look to get extra cash in exchange for sex, a phenomenon seen on a daily basis in small towns along the federal highway BR-153. The high dropout rate of girls and gender-based violence are commonplace there. While better road infrastructure brings more economic opportunities to the region, higher road traffic and activity can also increase social risks like gender-based violence.

A World Bank’s multisectoral project in Tocantins seeks to improve efficiency of road transport, in particular, state and rural road network, and to support institutional strengthening in the following five sectors: public administration, agriculture, tourism, environment, and education. While the project does not include any roadwork specifically on the highway BR-153, it aims at reducing existing risk of gender-based violence along the highway as part of the education component of the project.

Schools play an important role in building respectful relations between girls and boys, challenging gender-based stereotypes and combatting discrimination that contributes to violence against women and girls. Accordingly, based on the level of the dropout rate and violence statistics, six high schools along BR-153 were selected to host a pilot initiative to improve awareness of gender-based violence and in the area.